A Paris judge decided last Friday that tribal masks from an indigenous people of Arizona may be auctioned in France despite uncertainty surrounding the legality of their acquisition. The decision could be at odds with a similar judgment by the German Federal Court of Justice.

Oil spills from oil exploration sites in Nigeria often harm the livelihood and environment of the nearby population. A court in The Hague now ruled who’s responsible for environmental damage caused by sabotage by oil thieves.

The Local Court of Munich had to decide whether the operator of a supermarket is liable for a painful cut that a customer had sustained when taking a bottle of rum from a pyramid of bottles. The judgment is focussed…

After yesterday’s re-argument of Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, it looks like the US Supreme Court might keep the door ajar for non-US claimants to sue non-US corporations in US federal courts for torts committed abroad. The forthcoming judgement of the Supreme Court will show the way for many transnational human rights lawsuits against corporations before US courts, including litigation against German and European corporations.

A judge in Florida dismissed on Friday a lawsuit filed by Italian businesses launched after the Costa Concordia ship had run aground at an Italian island in January 2012. The plaintiffs alleged an own failure of the Miami-based parent company of the ship operator, but the judge held that Italian courts would be the more appropriate forum to hear those allegations.

Rechtsanwalt Robert Grabosch (attorney registered with the Berlin Chamber of Attorneys)

Dircksenstr. 52, 10178 Berlin; grabosch@grabosch-law.eu.

Mr. Grabosch has been admitted for practice as Rechtsanwalt in Germany by the Berlin Chamber of Attorneys, Littenstr. 9, 10179 Berlin, Germany.
The applicable legal provisions are the Federal Lawyers’ Act, Rules of Professional Practice, CCBE Code of Conduct for European Lawyers, Attorney Remuneration Act, and the Mediation Act. They can be found at http://www.brak.de/fuer-anwaelte/berufsrecht/.